Alcoholic beverages such as beer, wine, whiskey, rice wine and shochu have been enjoyed by people since long ago. A wide variety of alcoholic beverages have actually been produced and sold, contributing to people's rich dietary life.
While having such an aspect of enjoying people, alcoholic beverages may produce undesirable symptoms. Excessive drinking may cause drunken sickness or hangover where the symptoms of drunkenness (such as headache, dizziness, nausea, dehydration) persist on and/or after the following day of drinking. Further, excessive drinking for a long time may develop symptoms such as gout and liver dysfunction. Such alcohol-induced symptoms are common in that they are attributed to an increase in blood alcohol concentration caused by drinking.
There are several known inventions intended for promotion of alcoholic metabolism after drinking. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 11-276116 discloses an alcohol metabolism promoting agent comprising a processed pork product prepared from pork treated with a protease (Patent Document 1). Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-161045 discloses an alcohol metabolism ameliorant comprising a fermented rice bran and soybean extract (Patent Document 2). Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-226277 discloses an alcohol absorption and metabolism regulating agent comprising a processed soybean product as an active ingredient (Patent Document 3).